I love the whole World!
August 3rd, 2008I love the whole World!
“Last Lecture”, Randy Pausch Passes Away at 47
July 25th, 2008PITTSBURGH (AP) — Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, has died. He was 47.
University spokeswoman Anne Watzman says Pausch died early Friday at his home in Virginia.
Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet.
In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death.
The book The Last Lecture, written with Jeffrey Zaslow, topped best-seller lists after its publication in April.
Rest in peace Dr. Pausch. If you don’t know who is he or haven’t watched his touching and final lecture, I’ve embeded it into this post just below.
The Greatest Jailbreak Ever?
June 14th, 2008
From BBC News,
Taleban jail raid frees hundreds
Afghan security forces are searching for hundreds of prisoners who escaped a jail in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after Taleban fighters blew up the main gate.
An official in the southern city told the BBC about 350 Taleban militants had got away and 15 guards were killed in the truck bomb and rocket attack.
More than 1,000 people are thought to have escaped, Kandahar provincial council head Wali Karzai said.
Nato troops are helping Afghan forces hunt for the prisoners.
The BBC’s Martin Patience, in Kabul, says the Afghan police and army are conducting house to house searches in Kandahar, while Nato forces are using helicopters to secure the city and the outlying districts.
A state of emergency was declared in the city, the second biggest in the country, after the attack on Friday night. All residents were ordered to stay in their homes.
A Taleban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said that 30 fighters on motorbikes and two suicide bombers had attacked the prison, freeing about 400 Taleban members.
This is some crazy stuff. Just feels like something out of a movie/game. I probably won’t be surprised if this plot gets translated into a Hollywood picture in the near future.
Concerned Citizen - Mixtape #1
June 14th, 2008
Just whipped up a quick mixtape that I hope you guys would enjoy. I was trying to go for a summer theme in this mix. Take a listen, send me your comments and share your mixtapes!
Rape Victim Recounts 19 Hours of Terror & The Case on Death Penalty
June 8th, 2008I was reading a thread on this sick fucker who basically confined a total stranger for 19 hours, raped her repeatedly, tried to get her to slit her own eyeballs, cut her eyelids and beat her, on Somethingawful when NancyPants (a forum poster) shared his/her insight on the death penalty. I thought it was very meaningful and wanted to share this with ya’ll.
We throw people in prison to keep ourselves human. The reason we don’t torture people like this to death is because we’re holding ourselves to higher standards, it’s an outward representation of the difference between your average person and the psychopath you’re throwing behind bars.
Revenge and punishment are for dogs. Nothing you do is going to deter a person from doing something like this; anyone who can do something like this is so far gone, no punishment is going to scare him until it’s already on him. And then what? You scare the bastard, make him beg for mercy, put him through as much pain as he did to someone else? Assuming you could even put him through the same thing physically and mentally, what does that accomplish? It doesn’t bring anyone back and it undoes nothing. Besides the ethical concerns of false imprisonment, all it does is turn the punisher into the same dog he’s beating.
Even if you’ve got no concept of what humanity is, you still can’t argue that torture is acceptable when juries can be swayed by emotion and not evidence, judges can be corrupt, and police can fake evidence just to get a conviction. Mistakes can be made; better to let 100 innocent men sit in prison with a chance of turning some of it back than torturing one innocent person.
I say let him live in prison the rest of his life. Make sure he gets three squares a day, something to read, medicine when he’s sick, time outside every day. He likely won’t understand it, (and from the responses in this thread, neither will half of GBS) but no one compromises themselves to hurt him. If you believe in God or whatever, let Him do the punishing.
History lesson: Hammurabi’s Code wasn’t the gruesome deterrent some of you seem to think it was and advocate going back to; it was actually a step up. It established a system where no one’s punishment would exceed his crime, unlike what was going on at the time.
Thinking about what he said, shouldn’t it be time to abolish capital punishment here in Singapore too?
Ex-NKF chief TT Durai to start 3-month jail sentence from Jun 10
May 30th, 2008Doesn’t quite make sense. How is it that TT Durai is able to get so much concessions from the court. Come on, first he is able to go to Dubai to work (read: leave the country) and now he is able to defer his sentence due to some family issues?
This guy swindled money donated by kind Singaporeans for his own personal pleasure and he gets his jail sentence handed to him on a golden plate? What justice is this?
Really, how is it that someone guilty of a crime is able to leave the country, while Dr. Chee can’t even leave the country just for being a bankrupt.
Can someone please help me understand.
SINGAPORE: Former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) chief TT Durai will start his three-month jail sentence from 10 June, after the judge dismissed his appeal.
Justice Tay Yong Kwang said Durai “was in a position of trust and authority at the NKF and the return of the money only came about after investigations into the invoices were underway.”
He added that the “money in question belonged to a charity whose funds come from well meaning trusting donors”.
In June 2007, Durai had been found guilty of using a false invoice to deceive the NKF into paying S$20,000 to his interior designer friend, David Tan.
Durai’s lawyers had argued that Durai, who is now working for a company based in Dubai, is in charge of billion-dollar deals, so a custodial sentence would affect his ability to pay off his debts to the NKF.
But Justice Tay dismissed the arguments and threw out Durai’s appeal.
However, he allowed Durai to defer his sentence to 10 June because his elderly mother is going for a cataract surgery on 3 June. - CNA/vm
Source: CNA
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May 20th, 2008
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Warren Buffet Speaks to CNBC
May 6th, 2008
The Oracle of Omaha, Mr. Warren Buffet, spoke to Becky Quick of CNBC’s Squawkbox this evening, after attending his company’s annual shareholders meeting.
Roleplaying various leaders like Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, John McCain, Becky asked Mr. Buffet for his opinion on the latest financial news.
They talked about federal rate cuts, tax cuts, the stimulus package, Microsoft’s acquisition attempts, Bear Sterns and many more.
Check out the video as well as the transcript here.
Its always such a pleasure listening to Mr. Buffet. For the world richest man, he’s really humble and friendly. Its almost like he’s the nice friendly grandfather that everyone wishes they have.
The less I drink, the more drunk I get
May 5th, 2008Found this on Mr. Tan Kin Lian’s blog which I thought is brilliant.
A beer addict orders 5 glasses of beer. He gulped it down. Then he ordered 4 glasses, and gulped it down. He ordered 3 glasses and gulped it down. Then he ordered 2 glasses.
The bar tender said, “I have never seen a customer drink beer in this manner. It’s surprising.” The addict said, “Yes. I am also surprised. It seems that the less beer I drink, the more drunk I get.”
Larry Haverkamp said, “The beer addict is focusing on the first derivative and not on the absolute quantum”. Can you understand Larry?
Sometimes, we’re so engrossed with the small picture that we don’t see the big one. One of his readers’ commented,
Vincent Sear said…
It’s like the 4D punter. He buys $80 this week, never strike; he gets poorer. He buys $40 following week, never strike; he gets poorer. He buys $20 following week, never strike; he gets poorer. He buys $10 following week, lo’ and behold, he strikes $100! He thinks that he won 1 to 10 ($10 paying off $100), but he forgets that he spent $150 total.
Moral of the story, don’t bet on the losing game.
